The local government of Kingston in the Australian state of Victoria undertook an engagement process to help refresh their customer service charter. The process involved two deliberative panels: one of community members and one made up of council staff. The aim was to co-design a new customer service charter.
Problems and Purpose
The city of Kingston is a local government area in Victoria, on the outskirts of Melbourne. In 2017 the government there embarked on a public consultation to collaboratively develop a new customer service charter. Alongside a broader community engagement process, the council convened a community panel of citizens to deliberate on what the community perceives as good customer service to feed into the new charter [1].
Notably, following the community panel, the recommendations were fed into a second panel made up of randomly selected and appointed staff from the council to develop the final charter [2].
Background History and Context
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Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The community panel and broader engagement process was instigated by the City of Kingston local government. The engagement process was designed and facilitated by MosaicLab, and the participants for the panel independently recruited by Deliberately Engaging.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
The wider engagement process was open to all ratepayers and employees of the City of Kingston. This phase also took special effort to engage specific groups (although it is not clear how they were recruited) who were less likely to engage in traditional consultation methods such as surveys. These groups were:
- Young people
- Culturally and linguistically diverse people
- People with a disability
138 people took part in the surveys and 25 in targeted discussions [3].
The community panel was made up of 34 people who were recruited through a random selection process by Deliberately Engaging. From 10,000 invitations initially sent out, a group was selected to represent the community according to gender, socio-economic background, age, cultural background and location in Kingston [4]. Census data was used to achieve the stratification [5].
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Prior to the community panel meeting, a wider engagement took place to gauge the views of the broader community. This included a survey that was open to everyone and targeted discussion workshops aimed at groups less likely to participate: young people, culturally and linguistically diverse groups and people with a disability. The aim of this phase was to collect a wide range of perspectives that were then fed into the deliberative phase of the community panel [6].
The community panel met in person over 2.5 days. Whilst 34 people initially started the process, 23 remained until the final day for the drafting of the report. They were asked specifically to consider the balance between community expectations of customer service and budget constraints, alongside the feedback from the earlier engagement phase. Alongside this, the panel considered a range of evidence and perspectives, including:
- Background information and data provided by the council
- Expert presentations (panellists could also request to hear from specific people)
- Additional information requested by the panel [7]
In between in-person meetings, the panel had an online forum they could use to communicate, with around 20% of the panel actively using this. Through a facilitated process, the panel refined and reduced their recommendations for customer service until an agreement threshold of 80%+ was reached for their final draft [8].
Following the conclusion of the community panel, an employee panel was convened to further develop the panel’s recommendations for the customer service charter. This panel was made up of City of Kingston staff who were both appointed and randomly selected.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The refreshed customer service charter has now been finalised and released, although it is not specified exactly the extent to which the community panel’s recommendations were incorporated.
Since 2017, the City of Kingston have used further community panels including to help develop a strategy for library services and a housing strategy.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
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See Also
References
[1] City of Kingston Community Panel (2017). Customer Service Charter Refresh Community Panel Report. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice
[2] MosaicLab (2017). City of Kingston Customer Service Charter Refresh. Available at: https://www.mosaiclab.com.au/current-projects
[3] MosaicLab (2017). Customer Service Charter Refresh Wider Engagement Report. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice p. 1.
[4] City of Kingston Community Panel (2017). Customer Service Charter Refresh Community Panel Report. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice p. 1.
[5] City of Kingston (2017). Help us deliver great customer service: FAQs. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice/faqs#26565
[6] MosaicLab (2017). Customer Service Charter Refresh Wider Engagement Report. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice
[7] City of Kingston (2017). Help us deliver great customer service: FAQs. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice/faqs#26565
[8] City of Kingston Community Panel (2017). Customer Service Charter Refresh Community Panel Report. Available at: https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice
External Links
https://www.yourkingstonyoursay.com.au/customerservice/faqs#26565
https://www.mosaiclab.com.au/current-projects